Homemade Salad Toppings – Croutons and Vegan Bacon Bits

Spring has sprung! (Well, here in Minneapolis we woke up to more snow, but the calendar says it’s spring! Work with me here.) Birds are chirping! Farmer’s market season is soon upon us!

This time of year I find myself looking forward to the beautiful local produce, wonderful salads, and vegetable-centered meals that come with spring and summer. I am honestly counting the days (26!) until my husband and I can hop on our bikes and head down to the farmer’s market. There’s just something so lovely about waking up with the sun, heading out to the market, and allowing the growing season create our shopping list for us. Counting. The. Days. (26!!!)

We got a little bit of a head start on those summer salads this week – we’re in the middle of some home renovations that have dominated our nights and weekends (more on that in another post), so cooking has been put on the back burner and we’ve been doing a lot of simple proteins paired with lettuce salads. These are not the most glamorous of dinners, and I’m sure the foodie police will be after me for admitting this, but sometimes other things in life take priority.

One way I’ve spruced up these simple salads has been to toss in homemade croutons and homemade vegan bacon bits. If you’ve never had homemade croutons before, you’re really missing out – they’re so much better than the store bought ones. They only take a few minutes to make, the ingredients are simple, and they’re a great way to use stale bread. I’ve made them with pita bread, rye bread, naan, a baguette that was hard as a rock, and every bread inbetween. Super yummy.

Bacos are already vegan, and I’ve certainly eaten my fair share of them, but making your own means you can cut out all of those unpronounceable ingredients. The coconut in these definitely comes through a little, so if you’re not a coconut fan you probably won’t like these, but I’ve really enjoyed the nice smokey flavor they’ve added to my salads.